The Maui High Performance Computing Center (pictured here) has led a team to make container technology available to laboratory scientists, engineers and software developers. Containers are basically packaged software that allows developers to more easily keep pace with rapid developments and makes it easier to transport and copy software. The center is composed of Air Force Research Laboratory researchers and Department of Defense contractors. It hosts one of the Defense Department’s five supercomputing centers. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

The Maui News

The Maui High Performance Computing Center has led a team to make container technology available to laboratory scientists, engineers and software developers.

The center, which is located in the Maui Research and Technology Park in Kihei and composed of Air Force Research Laboratory researchers and Department of Defense contractors, hosts one of the Defense Department’s five supercomputing centers.

“Containers will make high-performance computing accessible to every scientist and engineer across all DOD labs,” said Laura Ulibarri, the research laboratory director of the center.

Software containers are a modern software development technique that allows software developers to more easily keep pace with rapid developments and makes software more portable and reproducible.

Containers have several major advantages. They save software developers and users significant work, time and expense in setting up and running software. They also allow machine-learning software to keep up with the rapid pace of machine-learning technology.

While software containers are widely used on desktop systems, the additional complexities of supercomputing hardware, software and network systems require an approach that prevents malware from getting into the Defense Department supercomputers.

“Though containers are still in beta testing, early adopters are reporting significant time savings using container technology,” Ulibarri said.

She pointed out that contractors supporting the Defense Department’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program have reduced the time it takes to deploy software updates from three weeks to a few minutes. Never in the history of high-performance computing has it been so easy to move software from a laptop to a high-performance computer than with container technology, Ulibarri said.

Chris Kotfila, a developer with the HPCMP Institute, said that in a two-week period, the team was able to complete three updates, including a security update.

“This is allowing the team to devote more of their time to developing new features and capabilities, and less time compiling and troubleshooting,” Kotfila said. “Containers have freed our team to be more efficient and more confident in the solutions we’re delivering.”